Secondary menu

You are here

Blogs

Today, I'll be headed out to Park City, Utah, for this year's PERS Summit. The conference will cover a variety of topics relevant to PERS companies, including the opening session with AvantGuard president and COO Justin Bailey speaking on the future of the PERS industry as well as a tour of AvantGuard's recently remodeled facility. I'll be updating this blog daily with happenings at the conference and an overview of some of the presentations and discussions—check back for more information.

“For us, we were looking at really filling in geography and covering pockets that we hadn’t really had good distribution in,” Ryan Fix, VP and general manager for Tunstall Americas, told Security Systems News. “We’ve been in discussions with them … for about two years now. So, it was a long process of really getting to know both organizations and coming together to find the right solution.”

Providence Lifeline Medical Alert Service is a business unit of Providence Health & Services, with a presence in the Northwest U.S, as well as in California, Texas and New Mexico. Tunstall will be maintaining the offices and the staff, expanding its regional presence.

“We service the same customers. I think we’ve got a broader service offering as far as product portfolio. So, we’ll be able to bring that to the customers out of the gate,” Fix said.

“One of the synergies that we had—that both organizations believed in—was really that service aspect. Instead of mailing units out, we have feet on the ground and field technicians that go out and actually go to the customers homes and do the installation and do any of the service calls that are required,” Fix said.

Providence’s accounts, which were previously monitored through Phillips Lifeline, will be brought into Tunstall’s HIPAA compliant call centers in New York and Rhode Island.

Tunstall completed one other acquisition this year, a smaller purchase in the Midwest, Fix said. “Behind the scenes, we’ve been making investments into expanding technology, upgrading platforms and doing things that … we think, separated us from anybody else in the industry.

Tunstall Americas was formed in 2012, after Tunstall Healthcare Group purchased the American Medical Alert Corporation. Tunstall Americas currently has 500 employees.

In addition to medical monitoring services, Tunstall also manufactures a range of medical alert, telehealth, and medication management solutions including traditional telephone based systems, cellular systems, and mobile safety devices to meet the needs of all individuals.

Survey results from Unisys show a trend away from traditional on-premises data centers toward cloud-based hosting. Survey respondents indicated that use of on-premises data centers will decrease from 43 percent now to 29 percent in 2019, while private cloud use will increase from 20 percent now, up to 28 percent in two years. Over the same period, public cloud use will rise from 18 percent to 21 percent, hybrid cloud from 11 percent to 13 percent, and use of community cloud (a private cloud shared by multiple organizations with a common mission) will hold steady at 9 percent.

"The results of this survey show that government decision makers understand the importance of embracing the cloud to help achieve their modernization goals," Venkatapathi "PV" Puvvada, president of Unisys Federal, said in the survey report. "But it also showed that nearly two-thirds are encountering unanticipated difficulties as they move to the cloud. Fortunately, those respondents who are actively working with industry partners to facilitate their cloud transitions reported a much easier road to cloud adoption by a two-to-one margin."

The respondents show widespread agreement on the benefits enterprises expect from the cloud. At least 94 percent cite improved disaster recovery/business continuity, agility and flexibility, more efficient storage, reduced capital costs and standardization of IT as being at least somewhat important. Improving agility—the capability to deploy IT resources nimbly in response to quickly changing business conditions and the factor most closely aligned to gaining competitive advantage—is the top driver overall, with 78 percent of respondents saying it is critical or very important.

In addition, many respondents report encountering unexpected roadblocks, with 60 percent saying those impediments slowed their cloud migrations and 17 saying that the roadblocks brought their migrations to a standstill.

While nearly two-thirds of respondents (62 percent) rated cybersecurity as the top priority for agency modernization projects over the next year, nearly the same percentage (59 percent) reported that they think their agency's IT modernization efforts have resulted in an increase in the IT security challenges they face. And when asked to grade their agencies' modernization efforts, 43 percent graded those efforts at "satisfactory" or lower when it comes to improving cybersecurity.

"The results of this survey tell us that many federal agencies may not have adequate staff and resources to manage security challenges in today's more complex and modernized IT environments, which in our view explains the feedback about modernization efforts exacerbating security challenges," said Puvvada. "To achieve successful digital transformation, agencies must make security a priority and embark on projects that enhance security at the core, as well as boost operational efficiency to meet mission-critical goals."

Here at Security Systems News, we feel also feel that cloud will continue to play an increasingly influential and disruptive role in security, transforming how we look at physical security in today’s digital world. For others who share this view, or are just curious about the role of cloud in security today and in the future, SSN invites you to attend our Cloud+ conference, which is Nov. 28-29, 2017, in Austin, Texas. Click here for more on the education program and to register.

Back in March I talked with a software company, OneEvent, that showcased its cloud-based predictive analytics engine, OnePrevent, at ISC West. The company started by focusing on predicting fires through monitoring environmental sensors and now it is rolling out a new humidity and temperature sensor which will bring information into its OnePrevent platform.

“When we rolled out the product in February, it was very much around the smoke alarm, the motion alarms, door/windows, and answering the questions of ‘Where’s the fire? Where did it start? Where is it going? And, where are the people?’” Dan Parent, OneEvent's chief operating officer and VP of engineering, told Security Systems News.

“The algorithms that we put into place around those sensors are extremely flexible, especially around the temperature measurements that we’re reading from our smoke alarms,” he said. This lead the company to develop the new temperature sensor that also measures humidity. Specifically, the company was looking for “a very accurate, repeatable, resilient, economical sensor that can give us capabilities in other areas.”

OneEvent was rolling out a prototype for the temperature and humidity sensor around ISC West 2017 and now the sensor is fully available.

Parent highlighted data centers as a potential market opportunity for the new temperature and humidity center, “One of the biggest problems in an IT data center—other than cybersecurity—is the health of their equipment. … They want to maintain a particular humidity level, and they want to maintain a particular temperature level.”

The temperature and humidity sensor has capabilities in OneEvent’s fire detection analytics. “In all NFPA regulations, you have to maintain a particular distance between the cooking apparatus and where the smoke alarm is,” Parent said. “We want to put the temperature/humidity [sensor] right over the stove.” This would help the analytics engine understand whether smoke could be related to cooking.

“It’s incredible; the power of measuring the data and being able to couple that measured data to the individual who impacts the building to create the data,” Parent said. OneEvent's also has a multi-sensor smoke/temperature alarm, door/window sensor, multi-sensor presence detector and water sensor.

Honeywell announced today that it has appointed Richard (Rich) Lattanzi as the president of Honeywell’s global security business and Dino Koutrouki as the president of Honeywell’s global fire business.

In their new leadership roles, Lattanzi and Koutrouki will drive greater customer focus, the press release read, and both will continue to report to Michael Flink, president of Honeywell Security and Fire.

“Serving our customers and growing our business are at the core of everything we do in our security and fire businesses,” Flink said in the announcement. “Having two independent teams focused on their business will bring us closer to our customers, maximizing our core strengths and enabling increased efficiencies. I am confident that Rich and Dino will drive performance in their respective businesses to better serve our customers.”

As the new president of security, Lattanzi will be responsible for all operations, business strategy and growth for the global security business. He previously served as the vice president and general manager for Honeywell Security and Fire Americas, and prior to that held the position of global vice president and general manager for buildings within Honeywell’s Environmental & Energy Solutions (E&ES). Lattanzi joined Honeywell through the acquisition of Elster, where he was president of the global thermal solutions business.

As the new president of fire, Koutrouki will be responsible for all operations, business strategy and growth for the global fire business. He previously served as the vice president and general manager for Honeywell Security and Fire EMEA, and prior to that held the position of vice president and general manager for the Honeywell Scanning and Mobility APAC organization. Koutrouki joined Honeywell as part of the EMS Technologies acquisition, and held a variety of leadership roles across the company.

Honeywell Security and Fire is part of the Home and Building Technologies strategic business group.

Each year, Security Systems News features notable women throughout the industry and we’d really like to hear from you about women we should feature this year.

This has been a great way to highlight women making a name for themselves, to hear about their businesses and focuses, and learn how far the industry has come in terms of diversity and including women in key roles through the physical security space.

One woman is typically featured in each section of our publication—General News, Commercial and Systems Integrators, Monitoring and Residential. If you have a woman in mind, please nominate them by emailing our editor, Paul Ragusa, at pragusa@securitysystemsnews.com.

Red Hawk Fire & Security, a provider of fire, life safety and security services based in Boca Raton, Fla., is providing resources and integrated systems expertise as a charter donor for the command and control center at the new National Sport Security Laboratory (NSSL) at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

The lab officially opened on Sept. 1, bringing to life NCS4’s vision to be the world’s foremost academic research institution to address sport safety and security risks and threats. Since its inception in 2006, the NCS4 has worked to address the evolving security challenges of the growing $60-billion U.S. sports industry through quality training, research, technology assessments, certifications and professional development.

The new lab is designed to test, evaluate and showcase vendor neutral safety and security solutions as well as to assist the training, research and development needs of venue operators and security professionals at sports settings globally.

“Red Hawk is well-equipped to bring our practical, hands-on experience integrating systems at several prominent stadiums and arenas to enhance the efforts of NCS4 as they do the important work of responding to this significant community safety concern,” Rick Tampier, Red Hawk’s senior director of sales and product strategy, said in the announcement.

Daniel Ward, the director of the National Laboratory and Training Center, describes the new facility as a living laboratory that gives students, academia, industry and government a place to research and learn.

“The center incorporates cutting-edge technology which provides the university with capabilities to gather, process, analyze, display and disseminate planning and operations data for research and training,” said Ward.

The NSSL’s new center now connects to the numerous sport facilities on the University of Southern Mississippi’s Hattiesburg campus allowing researchers and solutions providers to immerse themselves in a real-life sports safety and security environment.

“Connecting our athletic facilities as part of our laboratory provides amazing opportunities for our students,” Dr. Lou Marciani, NCS4 director, said in the announcement. “They will be able to work with professional, intercollegiate, interscholastic and marathon sports organizations and facilities to test theories, translate lessons learned and best practices into real-world solutions while also building the sports safety and security profession for the future.”

NCS4 recently earned accreditation for its Certified Sport Security Professional (CSSP) certification program from the American National Standards Institute Personal Certification Accreditation Program (ANSI). CSSP is the nation’s first professional security credential designed for those responsible for the planning and overall security operations of sports venues and events.

KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Earlier this week StoneLock, a biometrics company focused on designing and manufacturing access control and identity management solutions, announced that Jim Trani is the company’s CTO.

"My job, basically, is to create that vision of what we need to do to take us out of our advanced startup mode into a full-blown, high-tech producer, and to implement that,” Trani told Security Systems News.

StoneLock’s readers use near-infrared light to see multiple layers of a persons face. “We process a near-infrared image, and from that, we derive our biometric data that is used for match on subsequent verification,” Trani said. This process is completed at an edge device, as opposed to leveraging surveillance cameras and servers, he noted.

“[Biometrics] has never really made the inroads that I think it could make. And, I think our introduction of near-infrared, and the performance we get from that, and bringing it out to the edge like we do, really allows facial recognition to emerge as the gold standard for biometrics,” Trani said.

He continued, “I believe that over the next three to five years, with the way we’ve structured ourselves, biometrics can be in every household, and it can affect your life in many more ways than just being a mechanism to get you through a door at some institutional facility.”

Trani has “40 years of experience in research and development of engineering solutions,” the announcement noted. Trani previously worked with Tyco, Pelco, Infographic Systems and Compass Technologies/Wheelock.

StoneLock was started in 2012. The company, based here, has about 40 employees globally.

Demand for security cameras in the U.S. is projected to increase 7.2 percent annually through 2021 to $2.8 billion, according to a new report entitled Video Surveillance Equipment Market in the U.S. from The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based research firm.

The company found that gains will result from a variety of factors that support replacement demand and sales of higher value, upgraded versions, including:• Ongoing product advancements in camera technology.• Increasing affordability of cameras with expanded features, such as internal recording capabilities.• Continued shift toward upgrading existing legacy analog systems to either IP or HD analog systems in order to utilize more feature-rich cameras and systems.• Rising interest in higher value, more niche camera types—such as thermal or explosion resistant—as their prices continue to come down, which will work to expand the base of installed cameras.

In 2016, dome cameras accounted for the largest share of video surveillance camera demand with 42 percent, the report found. “Sales of these products have benefited from developments over the past decade, such as increased durability and higher resolutions,” the press release read. “This has allowed for broader use of dome cameras in both indoor and outdoor applications. Dome camera sales have also gained from the rising use of cameras indoors, where these constructions are still highly popular due to their discreet appearance.”

Through 2021, sales of all video surveillance products are projected to increase 5.6 percent annually to $4.9 billion, according to the Freedonia Group, which noted that growth “will be driven by the increasing affordability of feature-rich systems that incorporate enhanced capabilities, which will work to expand the base of end users that choose to install video surveillance systems and spur replacement and upgrade demand among existing users.”

I am very excited to announce Security Systems News’ Cloud+ 2017 conference education program, which can be found here. The show is Nov. 28-29, and back at the beautiful and relaxing Lost Pines Resort in the tech-savvy city of Austin, Texas.

This year’s education program is expanded, as we strive to be the education destination for those who are pioneering within the cloud community, which is revolutionizing security today.

As you look through this year’s program it will quickly become apparent that “Selling the Cloud” is an underlying theme for the conference, as sessions will look at how integrators, specifiers, dealers, suppliers—anyone looking to increase revenue and profits while providing cost-effective solutions with a high ROI—are leveraging cloud technology and computing with great success. Some of the leading integrators in the industry will uncover how they are transitioning from the traditional sales model to a more managed services model that increases RMR and lowers creation cost.

And subject matter experts from the leading cloud solution and services providers in the industry will not only be there on panels to share best practices and the latest advances and research, but also many will be exhibiting, so you can dive in deeper and get face to face with the top cloud companies working in security today.

There are also cloud-centered sessions looking at the rise of smarter, safer cities and the potential there for the security industry; cybersecurity in the cloud; how to hire IT-savvy employees who can talk cloud; and much more!